The Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Board (2) met to discuss Coventry Outdoor Education Service (Coventry Outdoors) and the complexities of finding homes for children in care. The board reviewed the Coventry Outdoors service, including its strategic priorities, participation, and financial position, and discussed future developments and plans for celebrating 60 years of Plas Dol-y-Moch. The board also discussed the challenges and costs associated with finding suitable homes for children in care.

Coventry Outdoor Education Service (Coventry Outdoors)

The board received an overview of Coventry Outdoors, which delivers educational and personal development experiences through outdoor learning and activities. The service operates at Coombe Abbey Country Park and Plas Dol-y-Moch, its outdoor residential centre in North Wales.

Coventry Outdoors aims to enhance accessibility and engagement through a sustainable hub-and-spoke model, connecting a central outdoor education, training, and wellbeing hub to smaller satellite locations across the city. The service contributes to the One Coventry Plan, the city's Skills Strategy (2022–2030), the Green and Blue Infrastructure Strategy, the Coventry Alternative Provision Strategy, and the Coventry Climate Change Strategy.

In the 2024/25 academic year, 8,665 children and young people engaged with Coventry Outdoors, with 3,036 attending residential experiences at Plas Dol-y-Moch and 5,629 engaging with in-city provisions. The service is fully funded from traded income and grants, with a total income of approximately £1.8 million per annum.

Potential future developments include renovations of the main house at Plas Dol-y-Moch and the development of a rural sustainable community hub within the city. 2026 will mark the 60th year of Coventry's ownership and operation of Plas Dol-y-Moch, and celebrations are planned to recognise the centre's contribution to generations of Coventry children and families.

Coventry Outdoors contributes to reducing health disparities across the city by improving access to green space and nature, promoting mental wellbeing, increasing physical activity, supporting social mobility, and upskilling the workforce.

The Coventry Outdoors Education Strategy 2025 – 2027 outlines a comprehensive approach to integrating outdoor education and activity programs into education and community services. The strategy aims to enhance accessibility and engagement through the implementation of a sustainable hub-and-spoke model, connecting a central outdoor education, training, and wellbeing hub to smaller satellite locations across the city.

The Coventry Outdoors Service Brochure 2025-26 provides information on the courses, qualifications, and programmes offered by the service.

Complexities in Finding Homes for Children in Care

The board were also scheduled to discuss the complexities involved in finding homes for children in care and associated costs, but the details of this discussion are not available as it was held in private session.

Work Programme

The board considered the draft work programme for 2025-26, as detailed in the Work Programme Scrutiny Board 2 2025-26 document.

The board had previously met on 10 July 2025, and the minutes of that meeting were agreed as a true record. During that meeting, the board identified several items to be considered for the Work Programme 2025-26, including:

• A progress report and update on the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH).
• Children absent from education including truancy, alternative provision, and elective home education.
• Recruitment and retention for children's social care staff.
• Family Hubs and the overlap with MASH.
• The sufficiency of homes for children.
• The Kinship Strategy and work undertaken before children come into care.

During the 10 July meeting, the board also discussed Cabinet Members' Priorities and Work Programme 2025/26, including ways to reduce the burden on MASH, Coventry's MASH performance in comparison to other local authorities, Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs), the provision of secure accommodation in the West Midlands for care leavers in custody and young offenders, the funding arrangements for the Family Group Conferencing service, communication and data sharing arrangements for multi-agency working, the Woodlands School Site planned opening in September 2026, Coventry's response to the national increase of home education, truancy, approaches to bulge classes, and the Alternative Provision Academy replacing the Extended Learning Centre for excluded children.

Councillor Patricia Seaman, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, highlighted that with the introduction of the care reforms and Coventry already being well placed to enact these, there would still be some significant changes to children's services over the next year and that the service would continue to expand and invest alongside building upon the work of MASH, the Kinship Strategy, and Lifelong Links to find better outcomes for children and their families.

Councillor Dr Kindy Sandhu, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, highlighted how key education projects would add value over the next municipal year, with the service area focusing on sufficiency of school places, managing SEND¹ and its budget, implementing a smart phone campaign in schools, and continuing the successful work of the Holiday and Activities Programme (HAF).